Introduction:
For most people, trying to understand who we really are in a spiritual way, it can be a bit confusing since we always associate ourselves with our earthbound personas, as a part of us that has evolved from the primordial puddle of evolution. How we understand ourselves is complementary to how we define our selves and our existence as a whole. Science defines us as organisms as far as our biological origins are concerned but there is a part of us that is separate from our earthly bodies and that is what truly defines us as unique in a lot of different ways, our soul.
Most scientists and sceptics point out that the soul is something that our minds conceive and everything that we define as that being spiritual is just a part of our consciousness that wants to find answers to our fear of the unknown. Despite being biological organisms ourselves, our body is not to be considered as a “thing” but rather an ongoing “process” that is constantly evolving as we age. By “process” we mean that everything that our minds interpret and conceive is an “activity” which include our thoughts, emotions and perceptions as they do not last forever but only for a limited time span until they lapse and disappear.
Even our physical bodies that we thought was part of our inner mind and soul is actually a perceptual experience because what we have experienced growing up until the time that we age and wither is completely a different state of existence. Why pray tell? Because 98% of the atoms that compose our bodies are different now compared to what you had yesterday, a day before and when you were born into the world. This literally means that you are not the same person that you are today than you were yesterday and that is a scientific fact when we consider the molecular and atomic composition of our bodies.
We are literally made out of pure cosmic energy and we all know that atoms are bonded together by the constant flow of neutrons and electrons that revolve around it’s nucleus, keeping it together. This only proves that the universe is always in a constant state of motion as it is continually expanding, that what you experience right now has already passed in just a fraction of a microsecond. Time is not even relevant when it comes to measuring how we exist in the world which can be credited to the mistaken perception of the intellect.
Intellect confuses reality with how we experience the real reality that we are currently existing on because “real” reality is eternal and timeless that it goes beyond our dimension of perception. According to the early 1900’s philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, our lives are but a dream and we are all sleeping and that there will come a time that we wake up from this sleep and realize that we are just dreaming everything that we are experiencing, that we eventually wake up to “reality” or in other words, “enlightenment”.
What Is Reality?
Many would like to define their reality as the state that they are presently in or is it? Lucid dreams is a kind of mental projection that the mind undergoes when sleeping conditions are just about right that it often leads to dreams that are so real that most people who have experienced it can not distinguish dreams from reality. A more in-depth explanation of “reality” can be defined as the consciousness that is projecting our dreams that we customize to fit in with our needs, how our subconscious interprets life all around us.
Though we forget things that we have experienced from the day that we were born, these experiences are not really forgotten but rather hidden away deep inside your inner mind for a whole lot of reasons. You may have heard of people that recall the day that they were born or recall things from a young age that most people won’t be able to even remember even if they tried. There are even people that remember their past lives that it seems so clear to them that they can tell you the exact name of people and places that their past lives had once existed on.
There is really no rational explanation for this phenomenon and science can’t even give us a straightforward answer concerning this. Dreams that feature vivid images of places and people that you do not have any recall at all, are all part of the different planes of dimensional existence that you had lived in at one point of time to another. One important reason why we do not remember most of our dreams is because we only remember things that we find relevant, things that we like and things that make us happy and satisfied with ourselves.
Which takes us back to our bodies being a process and not just an organic container that holds up our entire anatomy to which we are more attached to. It is a process that we can not identify with our body and mind because both the body and mind are “processes” when it comes to feeling sensation and expressing them through reactionary thoughts and emotions. In a more “scientific’ perspective, everything that we experience on this plane of existence is fundamentally composed of data (information) and energy.
And if reality is really all just about how we process information that we perceive from our environment through sensing and stimuli, is our perception of reality the same or similar to other people, or is there a collective representation that we all share as a specie? Or, is our reality just one of a few other dimensional levels of awareness that we are already existing in and can transcend to higher levels of awareness through spiritual upliftment and enlightenment? One thing is for certain, we are liable for creating our own reality and our perception of this reality that we created varies from person to person, as every body has their own collective perception and interpretation of the life that they want to project.
Self Realization: The Only Path to True Enlightenment
Self-realization, a term that if not given enough attention to fully understand it’s meaning, may sound fringe and vaguely misunderstood. This term is not to be taken lightly nor should it be given a simple form of explanation since the essence and beauty of the meaning of “self-realization” lies in the complexity of finding the most befitting answer of it’s true meaning. The path that you have to trudge and the struggles that you have to overcome in order to attain true enlightenment makes the effort all too enticing not to pursue.
Imagine getting lost in a forest at night, pitch black, loosing your sense of direction and from a distance you see a flickering camp fire light and the first thing that you will feel is hope as you walk towards that light. Same thing that awaits you with your struggle in attaining true spiritual enlightenment, hope and salvation from the predatory darkness that blinds your path in life. Expanding our awareness allows us to reinvent how we experience our present state of reality that we change our relationship with time and space in our present moment and though the experiences will constantly be changing, and with self-realization allows you to achieve pure enlightenment.
There is an aspect of immortality inside each and everyone of us because we experience the present state of our reality simultaneously as it comes and goes faster than the blink of an eye. Every human experience can be re-created but never can it be repeated as it has once been originally perceived spontaneously that affected what you are presently reacting to. A good example to simplify this experience is “deja vu”, a French term meaning “already seen” as if one has already gone through the same experience twice, re-living the same situation with the same particular detail.
Deja vu is one phenomenon that science can’t even explain when it comes to how it works, why it works and the purpose of it and why we experience it numerous times throughout our entire lifetime. One explanation for this phenomenon has a spiritual connection with our immortal aspects as being part of the universe as a whole and that is we need to open up to wisdom to enable us to fully realize who we really are and not what we perceive what we are. There is a big chance that we will find our spiritual awareness being reborn into one of the multiverse that mirror our present reality and that Deja Vu is repetitive cycle of that same life that we relive over and over again until we wake up from this dream that we call life and realize the truth about ourselves.
Each enlightened reawakening shows us the correct path towards another level of awareness until we become very different beings from what we were before spiritually and intellectually. Just like an onion being stripped off layer by layer, revealing a whole new onion every time each old skin is shed off until you reach the core of it’s origin, it’s true self.
Self Awareness: How We Project and Define Our Reality
The term “paint a picture that you see inside your head” is a falsely interpreted phrase that has been literally implied when it comes to describing what we see in the world around us. If we were asked to picture an image of the house that we live in, we instantly see an image of our home, every corner and every detail with just one suggestive thought. We can clearly see all the details and colours in our minds but there is no actual image imprint in our minds but only that of electrical activity stimulating us to project an image.
Or if you were to be asked to describe what a sirloin steak tastes like, given that you have had the experience of indulging yourself with a steak dinner, only then that you can expound that experience in which other people have also experienced it themselves. Another interesting thought is that of music, in which some people can hear it inside their minds without even humming out a tune. They can even go to the extend of being able to hear an entire orchestra in their mind due to the fact that they had the experience of hearing it being played and retaining the moment of that experience in their mind.
But there is no electrical impulse inside their minds that can be interpreted electronically to hear that audible output from within their heads because it simply does not exist. Are you even sure that what our eyes see and what our ears hear are really what they seem? Or should we say that what our minds see and what our minds hear is actually what it interprets for the benefit of our understanding? Our brain’s interpretation of light, sound, smell and taste are all inside our head and that certain combinations of sensory perception re-assemble and compile those experiences in which our minds interpret from past experiences.
The term “Factual Development” means that we store information in our brain for future references, meaning that each time we are asked to describe what something feels or tastes like, we do not have to bother ourselves into touching, tasting or smelling an object or even to re-enacting every action to be able to describe an actual experience. Our reality is defined by the experiences that we have undergone through our development and growth as a specie that we have to learn a lot of things in our life before we can even learn to survive.
Unlike other animals that have only to learn the basic traits of their existence like running, flying, swimming which are some of the essentials of natural survival, humans need to develop intellect and strength before they can even learn how to fend for themselves in nature, which explains why we have a high mortality rate compared to other animals. When it come to developmental awareness, we are considered to be the slowest among all mammals when it comes to learning what we have to do in order to survive and prosper.
What You Know About Yourself, Who You Really Are?
Mind, body and universe. Three important terms that defines who you really are. These three terms also shows your different divisions that comprise you as a whole. When it comes to stripping down your entire essence as a sentient being, it all comes down to one word and that is “I”.
You being your essence with the universe, modifies every experience that you come to manifest, every thought, every emotion modifies itself into a perception. “I” is not only a vowel but it is a point of singularity that refines you as a spiritual being and ultimately integrate you back to the source of your origins in the cosmic universe. “I” ultimately becomes the conscious energy that you really are after you come into terms of the truth that what we see in the mirror is but a shell that contains our inner mind and spirit.
Our physical existence draws us away from being able to attain the courage to step out of our comfortable position in life, which is quite understandable since human beings do not want to feel any sort of discomfort in their life regardless of any aspect thereof. This is a problem for most people that seek self-awareness because it is a stage in their journey in finding self-fulfilment and enlightenment that they come to realize the hardship of focusing their thoughts to keeping in pace with their goals of attaining enlightenment. We’ll grant you that the world around you is teeming with temptation, the kind of physical, mental and spiritual diversion that can easily pull you away from your plans and aspirations.
It’s hard enough to pull yourself together when the whole world frenzies all around you that you eventually begin to falter and slowdown until you abandon all interest in pursuing your goals. That is why you have to give yourself time away from the world and walk away from everything that binds you to your earthly existence in order to clear away your doubts and anxieties, allowing you to have a clearer thought perception. If “I” is the essence of the universe, then “Me” is the body and mind which is subjectively separate from the one being “I”. “Me” refers to what your mind and body experiences in this plane of existence, experiences that were swung into action from past events that affect your present state, which can be modified to produce an alternate result of things to come in the future.
Eastern philosophy calls this “Karma” which defines a person’s actions and the kind of action that they have done. It is cause and effect that puts into perspective that whatever we do in this world that would cause something to happen, not necessarily directly to a person, animal or object, that those same results will eventually find their way back to us and experience them ourselves, which sounds more like poetic justice. Even the need to find self-awareness has it’s share of karma, but it is the kind of karma that leaves a positive impression on people around you as it reflects the positivity and goodness within you.
Life is Like a Movie: Everyday Reality
Life as we live it on a daily basis can be considered as surreal that despite the reality of things that are happening around you, one may still feel it as being overwhelmingly unbelievable but convincing. Life is more of a convincing hallucination and though hallucinations are merely just a state of seeing things that are not real, some however suffer greatly because of it. We are aware that there are a lot of bad things that are happening around the world and though this temporal life that we exist in is just something that we wished was not happening, but for some unfortunate people, the dream turned out to be a nightmare, and then for a chosen few, life in this world is a perfect paradise.
Paradise amidst the chaos? How? The answer is self-realization, but you can not expect someone who is struggling and barely making it through the day with what little that they have to be able to clearly understand that concept of thought as they have other priorities to worry about other than enlightenment. Would you think that if all the people around the world would have enough to get by every day that they would have thought about trying to find self-realization if they weren't feeling hungry or repressed? How would they ever have a peaceful state of mind if they are in the middle of chaos?
This is the irony of the reality that we live everyday that for most of us who are not fortunate enough to have a decent standard of living, we rather prioritize finding the basic needs for our daily survival while those are comfortably well off can easily talk about finding self-realization since they are not feeling any less secure with their lives. You can not guide someone to self-realization and enlightenment when they need to have a sense of an assurance that they will not go hungry or that they will have a roof over their heads for shelter. For in analogy of our reality being like that of a scene in a movie, each and everyone of us has our own personal script that we would like to partake as actors and actresses in this movie called life.
We would all want to become our own heroes, triumphant to each end of every scene and plot and who doesn’t want a happy ending, right? But we are just actors in this movie that we call life and the universe directs us all in one direction but if we make a mistake in our timing and misreading of our script, we might just find our scene cut out from the rest of the movie, ending up on the editing floor, never to be seen. As it is important to have a sound mind and body and when all the basic necessities of life can be met, only then that you can start to stand up from your repressed state in life in which you, yourself will be seeking out the answers to your own personal profound questions.
Having the Courage to Wake Up
For most people, they lie in their beds at night and wishing for themselves that when they wake up in the morning, that their problems would have all melted away with the coming of a new day. Things could have been simpler if that be the case, but unfortunately there is no easy way out of life’s problems. Some people even go to the extent of wishing that they never wake up at all, as and easy way out of their problems, which they were the ones that caused it in the first place.
Nature and animals do not create problems for people. People create problems for other people, which eventually circle back to them. You, as a human being created your own problems and we suffer with the consequences of those problems as a whole and as a society. For most people, creating their own problems stems from their inability to make better sound decisions in life that they take blind chances, hoping for the better.
And most people live by the motto “You only live once” which should have a follow up tag line like “...and regret an entire lifetime...” which just consolidates what kind of mind set that these people have with regard to their well being. Chance taking is a very dangerous state of mind because it is a pointless behaviour that destroys your inner being making you think that the chances that you make can improve the way that you are living. Which brings us all back to the point of why people would do anything to run away from their problems, make it all go away with a wave of a magic wand, if there was really such a thing.
But in essence, you really have to find the courage to wake up to the reality of your problems and face them, because it is the only way to free yourself from all of the guilt that is holding you back from evolving to a certain extent to be able to fulfil more fundamental needs for the survival of the body and mind. Let’s face it, we can not take somebody to a certain mental condition of inducing reality and awareness until they have evolved to a certain extent and what gives most people a secured state of mind? Money, goals, achievement, relationships and affection are basically the most important needs of anyone nowadays.
And once that these basic needs are met, they slowly awaken and evolve along with a kindling creativity and intuition which leads to the plateau of higher consciousness and finally, self-realization. Again, we can not deny that despite your yearning to genuinely attain self-realization, the journey towards that goal will not be easy because there are things that the condition of our mind will surely make us hold back. This condition can create circumstances and events that we have to circumnavigate around to be able to arrive at our intended goal in life and that is the highest point of spiritual intellect which is self-realization.
The Self of the Individual is the Self of the Universe
What does it mean to become a higher being? Do you need supernatural abilities or powers to be called a higher being? Do you need extraordinary powers to be recognized as someone or something that is above every other being in this universe? To most people, supernatural powers are a proof of credibility if one wants to be called a higher being.
But we all know that power leads to exploitation and exploitation leads to corruption of the inner mind and inner spirit and it is so easy to grab the opportunity to hold power in your hands. But the real meaning of power is leaving it all behind, want nothing that may give you the right to condescend and rule over other people since power will bind your inner mind and spirituality to the plains of earthly needs and wants. True power is having the ability to control your impulses and irrationality, being able to think clearly and make decisions that can benefit everyone around you.
The one true real meaning of power is attaining the ability to leave your earthly existence behind, freeing your mind from any sort of influence that this world that you exist in may have on you. The body and the mind is just a transient experience that we are currently undergoing and that our “soul being” is a part of the cosmic consciousness which is a journey through cosmic time that will ultimately open our inner minds to self-realization. The true essence of real power is not so much as to make yourself be noticed nor rise above other people nor should you also yearn attention for yourself, but to quietly blend into your existence, without much as making the smallest ripple in the fabric of time and going against the cosmic flow of the universe, being one with it and that is real power.
Now, many of you would be questioning the logic of leaving behind things that are essential for one to be able to comfortably survive in this world which shouldn't be taken literally but rather weigh the essentials from the non-essential things that are not important with your spiritual development. Having too many things in life causes problems since too much possessions can cause paranoia which in return causes delusional perceptions. The first important steps in attaining self-realization is making sure that your well being is secured as not to cause any worries since you need to clearly focus on your goals and one can not focus if their inner mind is divided to other things that may derail their attention from achieving self-realization.
Establishing your well being is very important because it gives you reason and meaning with regard to what you do in life and how people around you compliment what you do, recognizing your importance within the community that you live in. Being recognized for your contribution within the society that you exist in is an important basis of developing self-worth and regardless of what you do, no matter how big or small your contribution is within your community, your active or non-active participation is important.
The Five Important Factors of Well Being
Human motivation comes from asserting that one’s well being is secured with the knowledge that an individual has purpose in life, not only for themselves, but for other people as well within their respective community. Achieving self-realization starts with having security of your inner mind and inner being. The problems that surround life affect your every thoughts and assuring yourself that no problems will ever come your way to shake you off from your focus has no guarantee.
As people, there is always something wrong that is bound to happen within our daily existence, may that be our own doing or a chain reaction of karma from past actions that have found their way back to us. Needless to say, whatever it is that we may find along the way, we still have to keep in mind that our goals of self-awareness and self-realization are the most important things that we have to reach if we are to fully free our inner mind and spirit from the grasp of worldly influences.
Career Well Being
Skills are very important since it is the backbone of our society’s development since pre-historic times. Even back in the days when we used to roam the great plains in search of food and sustenance, early civilization has already learned to delegate people with various skills with tasks that sustain a community as a whole. While there were the hunter-gatherers, there were also other people that gave their own unique skills in the service of the community that they belonged to. As most of the well abled individuals were given the task to hunt and gather food, others were left behind to work with menial tasks such as taking care of the children, cooking and tending to livestock.
It isn’t really what you do but what you can contribute even in the smallest way is as important for sustaining the community that you belong to. So, what defines a career? Nowadays a career can be described as something that most people love to do everyday, something that they don’t get tired of doing. It is often referred to as a “calling”, something that you genuinely love to do that it spans your entire lifetime, a true commitment that is far more bigger than yourself that defines you in return or in other words, a spiritual quest.
Social Cohesion and Well Being
Longevity and good health is a common factor among people who have passed way beyond their octogenarian age and have continued to live without much problems with regard to happiness and health. One thing common about these people is their active affinity with the community that they live in and unlike their contemporaries that were all hidden away into reclusion, these people were able to maintain a positive and healthy outlook in their lives. In the realm of social human existence, people would rather be criticized than be ignored because criticism improves the way how they can undertake their daily tasks and problems, which improve their intuition further developing their mental aptitude.
Social cohesion determines one’s worth in society and criticism may sound like a judgemental means of undermining a person’s capabilities and potential, but it can greatly improve one’s ability to adapt to change and adversities. Workplace statistics have pointed out that people who had been criticised by their mediocre output have greatly improved their efficiency by as much as 45%. Compared to people that were not even criticised, these individuals were even lauded for their improvements, which is a genuine recognition from the people that they deal with on a day to day basis. On the other hand, people that were left alone to continue to do what they always had been doing never outgrew their performance because they personally felt that they were just doing fine.
Nevertheless, they did not improve on anything and kept on doing what they did, knowing that they are not doing anything that will produce a negative result in their productivity. There are however people that become disengaged with the work that they are doing, disengaged in a way that they become passive individuals just going about their tasks because they need work and employment. There are others however that are very socially disengaged with what they do that not only are they not happy with what they are doing, but they even go to the extent of actually coming into the workplace to make other people unhappy as they are too.
As humans, we mirror each other when it comes to behaviour and attitude and we tend to go along with people that think on a level that is similar to ours when it comes to opinions and points of views. We draw strength from each other and we even go to a point of affecting one another mentally and psychologically when we develop that social cohesion towards a common belief. One good example is when you have a friend with a happy disposition in life, cheerful and always optimistic.
Without fail, you will be affected with this individuals happy perception in life which should increase the happiness factor in your life at about 15%. And since that happy individual also has a friend that is similar with their point of view, that happiness factor percentage can increase exponentially until you end up being surrounded by happy people! Same with the physiological aspects of social cohesion in which people affect how they look when it comes to manifesting and complimenting each others physical traits. If you have thin or skinny friends, chances are you tend to loose weight without even noticing it because you subconsciously want to fit into their circle. Same goes if you affiliate yourself with stout people or people that actively go into the gym and work out, the influence of your friends determines your inclinations and thoughts.
Physical Well Being
There is nothing much to explain this because it directly implies of giving importance to your mind, body and attitude. A fit and sound body gives comfort to the mind and soul, it reaches into your inner mind ans assures you that all is well and it is comforting to know that though we may be vulnerable to sickness, we can always overcome this by maintaining a strict discipline of not trying to poison ourselves with food that is contrary to our body and mind. It is so easy to splurge and indulge on food and vices that you can easily say to yourself that you have the right to reward and pamper yourself with the finest things in life.
Though you may say that it would be a seasonal indulgence until many seasons will pass until you loose your grip from your discipline. The easiest way to a man’s heart and mind is food because it is the kind of guilty indulgence that we absolutely love to consume and partake until it’s too late to realize that it is beginning to take a toll on our health and well being. Physical exercise and constant meditation builds up discipline in order for you to fortify your mind and will power to push back any temptation that may cause you to fall off from your goals.
Community Well Being
Offering your services is to dedicate yourself to your work but most importantly to a cause bigger than yourself even though you are benefiting from what you do and what it contributes back to the society that you belong to. Nothing compares to the happiness that one can get from knowing that their efforts can help a community evolve for the greater good of many, the effect that one genuine act of goodness and kindness can accomplish in changing people’s point of views and perspectives. It is not often that we hear of people going out of their way to help other people in need without asking for anything in return for their services.
A good example would be medical professionals going out of their way to help a community in need, providing their services out of the genuine goodness from their hearts and mind. It is the ultimate act of pure kindness that one can give to others. It changes an individuals perspective of the world that they know, from the cold isolated society in which everybody fends for themselves into a community that helps each other to maintain a positive aura of friendship and cooperation without thinking of our differences that has set us apart from each other in the beginning. A healthy community must have a social cohesion that sees beyond each others differences and act together for a greater purpose of good in which everyone can benefit on in the end.
An ideal community is also composed of different people with the same vision and ideology that wants to pursue a common goal of being able to create an effective means of distributing a positive encouragement to people that belong to their community. Besides establishing community cohesion, community well-being development also embodies the need for a means of partaking in communal meditation, a way of establishing a spiritual foundation in which the community can reach out for spiritual support and growth.
Though times are changing as the spiritual enlightenment of most people have all but faded to give way to practicality that spirituality has been put aside for more tangible ideals. Self-awareness can easily be propagated from within a community that you belong to if everybody else is actively supporting other people’s spiritual needs since personal support has always been the best foundation for personal growth. Hence, if the community that you belong in practices empathy and actively supports and encourages other people belonging in your community to open up their minds and do the same,
Financial Well Being
Statistically, financial well being is important in which ever aspect that you might look at it in life, but it is not “the” most important thing that one must prioritize in life. If you ask people what is the most important thing in their lives, chances are that money will be their first answer without even blinking their eyes and with full conviction. Let us allow that statement to slowly sink into our thoughts, that word “money”, quite thought provoking don’t you think so?
It is thought provoking because our lives depend upon a fixed financial system that regulates our daily needs, to make it simple, money has it’s control over us. Why? Because there are a lot, too many people at this day and age that are struggling with their basic daily needs but despite being given a chance to acquire money, it will not give you stability and security on a permanent basis that most people who had gotten their hands on large amounts of money, attain a temporary state of contentment and a superficial sensation of bliss and comfort. People who get what they wished for when it comes to acquiring financial gain may be in a euphoric ecstatic state of happiness for a certain amount of time, but that state of happiness slowly fades away and the glitter of their triumphs finally finish back at the bottom baseline from where they have started, ground zero.
A lot of people do not understand who they are and they think that money is the answer to their every woes in the worlds. The truth being us letting the system of money rule over us because we let it happen and the most ironic thing about that is we created the financial system that is making our lives miserable by having limited access to money in the first place. People’s perceptions are often overwhelmed when they receive a lot of money, and depending on how you would look at it, we we always though that money can change our situation but in truth it does not change who and what we are.
Who we really are is how we look at life and how we treat others around us, and if we know how to be empathetic, commit ourselves to the needs of other people, establish meaningful relationships which are the most important things in life itself. If we were to put a number to gauge the importance of money in our lives, that would only fall to about 10% to 12% at most, a stark contrast to what we realize we thought was in actuality. The remaining 90% of what really is important that makes us whole in our existence in this world is actually the experience of living our lives itself!
The Happiness Formulae
Is there really a mathematical pattern in which we can determine how happiness works? What if mathematics is not one of your most strongest points among your skills? Would you have difficulty in solving the happiness equation if you were given a chance to solve your problems with the difficulty of attaining happiness? For years now, many social scientist have come out with an equation that they believe is the secret to having a happy life which can be broken down to the following equation:
H (happiness) = S (set point) + C (conditions in life) + V (choices)
Set Point
The set point is a particular period in your life while you were growing up, the quality of how your parents or guardians have raised you affects your attitude toward the world and gives you the perception of how they interpret things around them. For children undergoing their formative years, this will clearly reflect the characteristics of the people that have raised them, imbuing them with their beliefs and opinions. The set point can also be determined by the way you look at life, if you find opportunities of growth, to love and to experience social relationships or do you see life as a problem.
The set point can be determined as early as the first three years in a person’s life, which are influenced primarily by parents and guardians which sets up a mechanism in your brain that “mirrors” your parents actions and reactions that it becomes your nature as well. If you grew up in a dysfunctional home, chances are you will develop a defensive attitude that reflect your parents interaction with themselves. On the other hand, if you were fortunate enough to have grown up in a simple but happy household, your attitude will clearly reflect the same jovial mood that you have grown up to which will reflect on your interaction with other people.
Can we change the conditions of the set point? Yes, as all things can be changed for the better, no matter how difficult one’s formative years may be, there is a big chance of changing one’s outlook of life for the better through self-awareness and spiritual meditation. That can greatly affect our daily happiness experience to around 50%, which greatly influences our outlook on life and how we deal with our problems.
Conditions in Life
Since money is typically one of the most influential aspects that affect everyone in the world when it comes to attaining happiness and security, we have to remember that money only consists of 10% to 12% of our happiness index which should not be a cause for us to stress about it. If you are unfortunately poor and impoverished, then it should without a doubt cause you stress and anxiety since you will have little to no chance of being able to cope up with maintaining you basic daily needs. So, do you think that rich people do not see money as a problem because they have more than enough to make them secure?
That depends on what rich people do with their money, as money is but a tool that people use in this world that can bring changes. It can be used for good and band, it can be used to influence and to persuade and depending on how you earned the money, and that is how it affects people towards their intentions in life. Then again, there are extremely rich people on the other hand that do have lots of money but feel extremely unhappy about it for whatever reason it may be, maybe because money has gotten the best of them and eventually it became their identity.
That being said, between rich and poor people, they obviously have one thing in common and that is they tend to think about money all the time. And when you think about money all the time, consider your self poor in a lot of different aspects for letting money rule your life and it does not matter how much money you make or how much money you have, as long as it becomes part of your identity.
Choices
The principle of free will means that we have the freedom to make our own decisions and choices that we can pursue for the sake of our own happiness and contentment. But the choices that we make can eventually affect the lives of other people around us in a lot of different ways, depending on our intentions and the results that we want. Choices stem from our needs and aspirations that making viable decisions can affect the rest of our lifetime and may even bring about subtle to drastic changes to the lives of people that we know and love.
Choices are also based on our perception and search for true happiness and though we might find something that we though can be permanent, it often turns out to be a transient stage of temporary contentment. Most choices that we make are often inclined towards our own personal worldly pleasures, whether that be physical, emotional or psychological, it is always our personal interests that lead the way of making our own choices. Do these personal choices for self-gratification make people happy?
In a way, they do, but not that of something that could last them a lifetime of contentment and absolution. Contentment and satisfaction is often vague that it usually lasts for a few weeks or months before the superficial feeling of happiness starts to fade off. Buying things usually is symbolical for self-appreciation and self-esteem as it can boost one’s morale and material acquisition is a tangible representation of one’s success and worth in the eyes of society. Can money by true happiness? Depends on the kind of happiness that you seek, but for most open minded people, they find their state of happiness in experiencing the true pleasures of life not in material things but in the experiences of living their lives.
Experiences such as going out with friends and family, taking long vacations to far away exotic places, eating and dinning with people that they hold dear are but some of the ways that people get to fully enjoy their money and life. Spending your hard earned money on other people is also a way of gratifying ones need to be happy, let alone sharing the happiness with others is also a form of contentment knowing that you have shared something personal with someone and the experience and happy memories of that moment is something that buying an object can not replace. Also, beyond the point of spending money to make other people happy, you can also give other people your personal attention and affection that is valued more than what money can give.
Enlightenment and Self-Healing
Science and enlightenment are two very distinct principles that often contradict each other in pointing out various means of explaining things that are logical and things that logic or rationality can not explain. It is very hard to make these two opposing ideologies to even meet halfway to make a fair compromise when it comes to the body, mind and spirituality since science bases it’s hypothesis and prognosis from facts and empirical data. Nowadays there are some clear paths that these two principles of science and spirituality can actually agree upon and that is the study of the human mind with regard to neuroscience.
Least to say that most scientists are the least enlightened people in the world because of their need to be convinced beyond the shadow of the doubt based of hard evidence and clinical scientific results. But considering you do not need science to be enlightened lessens the confusion of trying to convince people that there is something that we do not see that is there and all we need to do is accept that it is there. With regards to neurosciences, your brain, that one thing that is inside your cranial cavity in which most scientists consider as an organ classified as a muscle, does “not” represent you or who you are.
The brain itself is a part of your existence but is not a part of your inner mind, nor does it correlate with your emotions, feelings but it does control your body and other organs that are responsible of keeping you alive. To put it in a more simpler term, your brain is just an perceptive instrument that helps you experience your existence and life in this realm of your present dimension. Today, science is acknowledging the truth that they do not know where consciousness comes from as they thought that it was produced inside the human brain that they now have started mapping the human mind. Scientists are hoping to discover plausible evidence which should bridge psychological and spiritual beliefs on the origins of cognitive, perceptual, mental and emotional thoughts which eventually leads to spirituality and enlightenment.
Attaining Higher Consciousness: Rewiring the Brain
Going back to the aspects of our brain not being a part of our “self” but just an instrument that helps us experience the life we live, just like the rest of our organs in our body that helps us perceive the realm that we live in. We emphasise “realm” because it is what our earthly existence understands until such time that our consciousness attains self-realization of who we really are, we remain in this realm since it is the only thing that our earth bound minds let us see. With regard to “epigenetics” and the ability of the human DNA to not only inherit the traits and characteristics of their parents, that it can also learn and adapt it’s own characteristics to ensure it’s survival by learning from it’s environment and passing on the information that it learned to the next bloodline.
Neuroscientists have now confirmed that human beings have this natural ability to actually reproduce and regenerate brain neurons that help us increase our brain capacity of neural correlations with our minds. One particular interest of scientists and neurologist is the frontal cortex or frontal lobe, that has baffled scientist of what is it’s actual purpose and function. “Neurogenesis” as it is now aptly called is the ability of the human brain to regenerate old and spent neural connections that are spread around creating billions and billions of networks that access the human brain.
What was then the old belief and understanding that when a neuron dies, it can not be reconnected to that certain segment of the brain to revive the connection of stored information in that particular area. But know it seems that not only can we regenerate new neurons to access information in our brain but we can also find alternative routes to that particular area that was not thought possible of being accessed. Our brain was pre-designed by our genetic traits and the basic neural networks were first set into place as a base design that drew itself from our ancestor's genetic hereditary characteristics.
These new neural connections can now be created by by your mental and perceptual experiences! You can now grow your own neurons by just focusing on the thought of it! It is like coaxing your brain to heal yourself by just thinking of it, and that is something very interesting to think about, since the old scientific belief of doing so much thinking burns out neural connections which is pretty much affiliated with skill development and hand and eye coordination. This means that we can actually cure our selves from any kind of ailment that is not genetically passed on to us by our ancestors, by just training our minds to do so.
Of course, we have to consider the 5% to 8% of those fatal genetic traits that our ancestors passed on to us such as cancer and diabetes are pre-disposed into our genes because of our evolutionary mistakes during our development as a specie. Now, we have scientific backing that proves that meditation and mindful awareness, particularly self-awareness and self realization can actually regenerate our neural connections.
Epigenetics: The Power to Heal Yourself
Our genetic evolution is influenced directly by our emotions, relationships and thoughts through interaction within our environment. Scientists once thought that the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was pre-designed by inheriting the genetic traits of both parents and that the resulting offspring will be pre-disposed to all the genetic traits, including the recessive genes that can be affiliated with diseases. But as of lately, scientists have discovered that DNA can evolve by itself through different stimulative conditions, may that be external influences such as the environment and nutrition that do not alter the underlying DNA sequence, changing the phenotype (a phenotype is the characteristics of an individual resulting in the interaction of their genotype with the environment) which affects the cell of the body, particularly how it will read the genes.
Epigenetics occurs on a regular basis and a good example is the rejuvenation of the skin cells, liver cells, brain cells and just about any organ in the body. Then again, epigenetic activation can also awaken other dormant genes that could trigger terminal diseases such as cancer which is activated by external influences such as environment and dietary intake. Epigenetics does have a conclusive effect on the human body that it can be destructive and yet there is a part of it which we can use to heal ourselves through changing the neural networks of the brain to fully optimize your physical, emotional and spiritual well being all through the simple principle of mediation and enlightenment.
This is a fairly new perception that is being tried out using scientific and spiritual methods of altering the body through programming your mind to open up to let positive energy flow within you. Neuropsychologists call this “neuroplasticity” a way of rejuvenating the brain neurons to allow it to build new links in order to optimize the way your brain functions, since neurons have an ability to regenerate overtime as we live our entire lifetime. It also means that if we can train our inner minds to heal our selves, we can even change our relationship with time, or more specifically how we relate with it.
It is so obvious that time or our perception of it has a big effect on how we live and exist in our perceived reality that we are constantly trying to keep up with time or even to some extent slow it down or even speed it up. We are enslaved to our perception of time and it often gets the best of us in a way that it does not only affect us physically but also mentally and spiritually. Opening your mind to the possibilities of being able to manipulate the effects of time on you can greatly change the aspects of your existence and it will let you see a whole new aspect of who you really are, one that is not affected by the construct of time.
And it can be said that our mind and soul is bounded by time which also affects the way that we are limited to open our minds to allow us to absorb wisdom which will eventually lead to understanding who we really are and what is our true potential.
Your Three Brains: The Three Steps Towards Self Realization
When we look at the human brain, we see two distinct characteristics that easily give us an idea that our brain is not composed only by a single segment, but rather two separate parts or hemisphere which are the left and right hemisphere. Each of these hemisphere has a particular function that control most of our organs and locomotor capabilities, but there is the frontal lobe or frontal cortex that has remained a mystery to scientists for hundreds of years and it is only now that we are beginning to understand what the actual function of our frontal cortex is. The brain, besides having different segments and hemispheres is also composed of three actual brains that are superimposed on top of one another as a result of our evolutionary development.
Instead of developing as one singular complex, it partially evolved to accommodate the succeeding evolutionary process, burying the old brain under the newly developing one until it reached a point of evolution that we were able to develop knowledge and reason. Our brain comprises of three stages of evolutionary development which is the reptilian brain, the limbic brain and the neocortex, cerebral cortex or cortical brain. Each developmental segment is responsible for our entire behaviour and how we determine our actions with regard to our environment, emotions and intellectual perception.
The Reptilian Brain:
The reptilian brain is the oldest portion of our brain that started to develop when the very first amphibious creatures started to venture out of the oceans and began to adapt to life on land about 300 million years ago. Since most amphibious reptiles are well aware of their vulnerability on their new land habitat, their survival instincts dictate to them two basic evasive reaction when they are threatened or caught by surprise and that is “fight or flight”. The reptilian brain is very useful when it comes to survival and self-preservation and if it was not for this portion of our brain, we would have not survived as long as we should have.
The reptilian portion of our brain is also responsible for controlling some of the basic vital organs of our body such as regulating our heart rate when we undergo stressful conditions and along with that, it also controls our breathing and body temperature. So it’s no wonder that most people feel a bit drowsy when the weather is cold due to the fact that a part of our reptilian brain not only controls our response to climatic changes, but it also slows down our metabolism to save body heat and conserve energy, just like putting us in a hibernating state. As we all know, reptiles are cold blooded and tend to go into hibernation when the weather gets a bit cold, much like the way we feel when the weather is cold that we tend to bundle up and just lay back.
Although we have undergone millions of years of evolutionary development, we still retain our reptilian brain design that is similar to most reptile brains today. These include the primary structures in modern day reptilian brains such as the brain stem and the cerebellum and it is quite reliable when it comes to assertion of threat but given the basic design of the reptilian brain, it is not able to evolve out of it’s basic design and it is also responsible for our compulsive nature.
The Limbic Brain:
Also called the “emotional brain”, the limbic brain is one of the most astounding development in the evolutionary state of mammals, us included as this developmental stage of the brain allows us to record memories and behavioural traits that we can determine to be favourable or unfavourable experiences. The limbic brain is also responsible for enabling us to feel and discern emotions and it is one that we commonly share with most mammals, making us realize who and what we are something that makes us sentient beings. It is no surprise why we can instinctively feel and understand other mammals because they too are able to understand our intentions and emotions through their limbic brains as well.
Our limbic brains also enabled us to domesticate animals which in turn became our livestock and beasts of burden to say that mammals evolved around the principle of depending on one another which helped each other survive. It also explains why mammals are sentient beings that are able to show and understand emotions such as happiness, empathy and anger which despite the lack of communicative language are able to more or less understand each other by means of actions and gestures. The limbic brain is also responsible for producing dreams in which is evident on all mammals, including cats and dogs.
The Neocortex:
As far as our brain is concerned, the Neocortex or Cerebral cortex is the newest evolutionary stage of our brain that is responsible for our intelligence and intellect and it first appeared in early forms of primates until it became part of our evolutionary stage as well. Arguably one of the most if not the most important segment of the human brain that clearly defines and separates “man from beast”, the cerebral cortex is composed of a very thin layer of grey matter that has an average thickness of around 1.5 mm to 5 mm. Though not necessarily made entirely of “grey” matter as it appears, the grey matter is actually billions upon billions of nerve and neural receptors that transmit electrical impulses all throughout the cerebrum.
There is a very thin film-like membrane that is called the “meninges” that functions as a protective lining to protect the cerebral cortex from physical damage as it literally floats inside our cranial cavity suspended by the cerebral fluid. Being the most highly developed segment of our brain, the neocortex is responsible for the way we think, perceive and understand everything that we experience in our surroundings. Most of our knowledge, intelligence, personality and ability to process information is done in this segment of the brain. It is also responsible for coordinating body and muscle movements, sensory perception including touch, taste smell and our ability to understand and learn language.
Conclusion:
Today, we might regard the human race as a “rational” being that has stood the test of evolution and time, being able to evolve way beyond the capacity of other living beings on this planet of ours. We have developed language, science, art and spirituality which makes us unique beings, but the truth is, we are not rational thinking beings as we thought we would be but in truth, our decisions and actions with regard to how we respond to our environment and towards other people are not really based on rational thinking but rather on pure emotions and instinct. Our intellect, though it has served our purpose very well with our survival and development as a race, could eventually find the answers to all of our problems, but it so happens that it turns out that it is the cause of our problems.
Conscious choice making is one of the most important aspects of self-realization that we have to objectively decide for ourselves if the choices that we make can make people around us happy and can it help with other people’s problems and not only your personal struggles. There is also a difference between what you want and what you need, more considerably instant gratification and life long fulfilment with regard to making a conscious choice with every decision that we make. The consciousness that we experience we call the “body” or simply called “body awareness” in which we are connected to our earthly origin and original body that is the Earth in which we were spawned to experience the beauty and vibrancy of what life has to offer in our existence.
In conclusion, we do have the ability to heal and regenerate our bodies to some extent but because our thoughts and inner perceptions are clouted by the chaos of life that we made around us, our inner mind and spirituality is weakened. The only way to recover your true capacity is to open up your inner mind and accept the reality of who and what you are which in turn open up your mind to accept self-realization until we reach the end of our journey in achieving and attaining true spiritual enlightenment.
